2012-32: Blue Dot Strippy – Strip Challenge

Blue Dot Strippy was made out of the leftover pieces from my Blue Strippy Quilt. I really did not want to have leftovers hanging around my sewing room, so I decided to make them up into a second top.

Because it was for a strip challenge, it had to be different from the first one, which was a bit challenging since by the rules of the strip challenge, I was required to use the same fabrics with the optional addition of one fabric. I have lots of white fabric given to me from a local shirting factory, so white was the logical choice for the additional fabric. To make the quilt different, I opted to make the orientation vertical n contrast to the horizontal layout of the Blue Strippy Quilt I made first. I had enough four patches to make three columns of blocks and enough left over bars to make three columns of bars. Three of each would not make a balanced quilt, so I knew I had to add something to make it both balanced and wider. The pieces hung on my design wall for several weeks before I got the idea to cut the 5 inch bars vertically and make strips of 2.5 inch squares to frame the four patches.

The quilt needed to be wider, but with limited blue fabric left in my package, the only option was to add wide white strips. That gave me the width needed, but the white open space was too empty. I still wanted to achieve a different look from the first quilt, so I began to think in terms of alternate shapes. I opted to join a few strips, back them with lightweight fusible and then cut out circles. My final choices were circles of 5″. 3″ and 2″ diameter. Once cut, I carefully measured and positioned them onto the white strip before fusing them. Then I used a machine blanket stitch to finish the raw edges. When the two strips had their dots attached, I then assembled the five strips to make the final top.

The top finished at 46″ by 62″ and was machine quilted with a simple loop meander which offset the angular edges of the strips, echoed the circles in the design and gave a light-hearted feel to the top. The quilt was machine bound with a navy binding.

This quilt appealed to the show viewers. It won first place in Viewers Choice and also won the Designer’s Choice Award. I was pleased that others liked it so much, but also a bit embarrassed to have won so many ribbons, since I was the coordinator of the strip challenge and the quilt show. My son congratulated me but also good naturedly ribbed me about winning, saying that it was not sporting behavior to win a competition when I was the organizer of the event.

Several guild members noticed my reaction to winning and told me to enjoy the ribbon, that I won fair and square! “The people have spoken!” A week has passed since the voting and I am now happy to have won the ribbon. It is hanging in my quilting studio where it will inspire me to be creative for the next challenge.